George, Natsuki and Tapioca Beads
by AnOwlTree
Summary: A list of headcanons I have about Akira's past complied into one story where Akira is sharing his stories with Natsuki. Headcanons about- His relationship with George Ace Tapioca Origin Story The first time Akira met Natsuki (tiny little Natsuki that is) ENJOY!


After the Bermuda Incident Akira's organization swiftly left the island. Maybe it was out of embarrassment or shame rather than anything else, but Akira was the most hesitant to leave. The exact opposite of the organization he loved, Akira was proud. Even after the orders had been given to pull out, he was still there just aching to say goodbye.

"Akira?" Natsuki was riding around in the passenger seat of Akira's van, feet lazily propped up onto the dash.

"What?" Akira tried to glance over at him as they took a sharp turn.

"Why don't you leave already?" Natsuki's hand steadily adjusted his glasses, as if he could read Akira any better if they were straight. After the incident Natsuki had begun to spend the majority of his time with Akira. Likewise, Akira dedicated all of his time to Natsuki. It was something that was normal then, they went fishing after school or rode around the island. When Natsuki had been so hesitant to trust Akira at first, it seemed childish to him now. Akira was his friend, and they were going to squeeze every last minute Akira had left on the island trying to spend it with each other. When were they going to see each other again? Would they ever...?

"I've been visiting this island sense I was seventeen. You have no idea how long DUCK has actually had their eyes here. Now that this is all through, I'm finally going to have to leave. For good now..." Akira's hand shifted while he put the van into park. The click sounded final, as his fingers slipped off the gear. _The last time I'm going to take Natsuki home. The last time.._

"Seventeen? I was..." Natsuki's feet fumbled around doing the math on the dash. Akira glanced to him angrily. _I am not that old that you can't do it in your head! _Natsuki met his glare, almost in disbelief. "C'mon, I'm seventeen now. You are _a little_ old. Oh! I was nine..."

"Yes, you were. You didn't have glasses back then." As those words slipped from his mouth, the van grew silent. The only sound made were Natsuki's feet falling from the dash. He could barely process what all of it meant. _If Akira has known me since then..._

"_You?_" The word hitched in the back of Natsuki's throat. Unsure about how uncomfortable this made him. The thought of being watched, was it strange or was it... something else?

Akira forced the keys out of the car. "Look, the first time I was stationed here was when I was seventeen..."

It was the first thing that DUCK ever forced me to do alone. The five years before then we all had partners together. We did everything with them, no matter where we were stationed or what was going to happen. He was always there with me.

"C'mon Akira, it's going to be fine." George was pacing around the airport with all of my bags. We were going our separate ways. The both of us went through our basic training together and while I was going into the field he was going to corporate as an intern. It was what we both wanted, but...

"I'm sorry." My head had been drooping. Of course I'd been upset. He was my first friend. I was seventeen... We'd been together for five years. All of our adventures, almost every significant moment in my life up till then had him in it. He'd been looking down on me at that moment, the kind of look that a mother gave its child for complaining about an insignificant matter. The only problem was, this was... terribly significant.

"Here, I got you..." George snapped his fingers. "A goodbye present." I hadn't been expecting anything from him. George had never been the most emotional, or attached person so when his men forced the box into my hands I'd never been more surprised. His feet carried himself closer to me, as if in anticipation to see as well.

"You didn't have to." My eyes glanced from him to the box.

"You're right Akira, now open it." It's weird thinking about it now, but in truth... I wish he'd still call me by my first name. After years of rigorous breaking into corporate they had broken him. The human in him smoothed out to business, complete the mission at all costs, no matter whose life is on the line. Get the job done. I miss him as he was.

"No, seriously." My hands nearly shook. "What is it?"

"It's just.. _something... _to keep you company." That word. _Something. It's a thing? _Before I let the thought cross over my mind anymore eager hands forced the box open.

"I've done you the honor of naming her."

The box he'd put her in was really ten times bigger than it needed to be. At that moment she was just a duckling. As soon as I saw her, I knew what George had named her.

"Tapioca." We said it in unison.

I'd promise myself that I wouldn't cry, but he was making it more than difficult not to. Before I knew it his arm slipped around my shoulder. Our eyes were locked on the small duckling in the cardboard box. "I thought you were bluffing..."

Five years before was when they took me. I did not volunteer, I did not sign up. I was taken. At the time, it seemed like the world was ending. Everything that had become cherished was wiped away by tall men with one name, one organization plastered over them. DUCK. This almost never happened, children being taken that is. I was a very special circumstance, in a extremely delicate situation. I've come to understand that now and today, I'm overjoyed at the life DUCK has given me... but back then...

"Have you ever had bubble tea, you know, with tapioca beads in it?" My eyes were red, awake for more than forty-eight ours at that point. This kid was across the room in our cell... just looking at me. Trying to start a conversation when all of my thoughts were concentrated on how to end myself with the materials in the room. The bars on the door, or the concrete we were sitting on. Which would be more painless? Which one would be quicker?

"No, I don't think I ever will..." My feet scrapped against the floor. D-U-C-K. My toes scattered the dust.

"You have to! It's probably the best thing I've ever tasted. When we get out and into training I'll have to buy you some."

"Will you..." My mind became infatuated on the thought.

"Of course!"

It's ridiculous to think about now... that somehow the promise of a drink was all the motivation I needed to stop me from killing myself. It wasn't really the drink itself...

It was the fact _he _cared enough to offer. Another human being was reaching out to me. In the distance of a cell, we became something. George and Akira.

Later on though when we got out, he never did buy me the drink. It was our joke really... I told him how he saved me that night, in the oddest of ways and we made fun of ourselves because of it. In every situation for the next five years whenever I thought I couldn't make it any farther, when I was about to run into the front line, or risk my life lying on the job, he'd pat my back and say. "Hey, I still have to buy you that drink. You can't give up now, can you?"

The week before I left to Enoshima George bought me that drink. It was depressing in it's own way. We knew it was the end. He _had _to buy me the drink... There would never be another opportunity.

"This is it, huh?" I sat there drinking the Tapioca he'd given me. It was pretty good. Nothing to die for.

"_That has kept you alive the past five years!_"

"What a shitty reason to live." My voice laughed a bit. _That _wasn't really why...

"C'mon. I think it's fabulous."

"So what am I going to live for from now on?"

"For DUCK of course."

"DUCK isn't Tapioca." It just didn't have the same sentiment.

"What about a Duck named Tapioca?"

"I'm not sure if that'll do..." _How am I supposed to continue. Who is going to tell me this is alright. You're not going to be there anymore. _

"I hope it will be."

_I hope it will be. _A promise.

"You really didn't have to..."

But he did it anyway. George the human being, had given me a best friend. A replacement. She is and forever will be the best thing he's ever given me, second to my life. I've thought about ways of thanking him, but I think every time George gets to see me with Tapioca it is in its own way, a thanks.

Anyway, back to the original story.

I left for Enoshima with Tapioca that morning. Everything went as it usually did in a new town. Relocation was always a twist. Getting to be a part of high school life, which we never had. Getting to introduce ourselves again and again. The only difference was that this time, when I walked into Enoshima High instead of George walking in beside me Tapioca was there resting in my arms.

"Hello, My name is Akira. This is my Duck Tapioca. I hope we'll all get to be friends." A girl in the front row glimmered in my presence. _It's the Duck_, I thought to myself. Sure enough I was correct. After class she came up to me and asked how old she was, and where I'd gotten her. The entire time she was glowing until, her... boyfriend came up?

"Hey, Misaki." The blonde headed boy had to be at least an inch shorter than me. His tie an alarming shade of pink. His hand rested on her shoulder as soon as he got in range. Jealously. How petty.

"Ayumi, Look!" Her hands were still preoccupied with Tapioca. Probably too distracted to notice his hand. "Aww.. I bet she can't even fly yet..."

"Oi, Indian." Ayumi barely registered the last words that had come from Misaki's mouth.

"It's Akira, Thanks."

"Akira, do you fish?"

The answer to that was no. And if it hadn't been for him asking, or Misaki's fascination with Tapioca then I may have never started to fish. Ayumi taught me the basics of everything I know. In truth he never really wanted to teach me, just to prove he was better at something than me. To show Misaki he was better than me in comparison... at least in that way. It was always the three of us fishing. Ayumi, Misaki and I. To my astonishment, they actually weren't dating at all. I guess my profession has always been the third wheel. Whether it's with Misaki and Ayumi or Natsuki and Yuki. I'm always there.

"I'm not in this story yet." Natsuki was getting impatient, the seat was reclined enough that he could lay back comfortably, eyes gazing at Akira whilst he spoke.

"I'm getting to you, silly." Akira playfully pulled his seat back as well, becoming level with Natsuki.

Always interrupting me. Anywho...

One day at the HemmingWay a man came in screaming. Ayumi, Misaki and I were looking at the fishing gear when he came in.

"Mr. Usami, what's wrong?" Misaki's father spoke, practically guarding the counter at the mans harsh screams.

"It's my wife, she's coming! She's!" He could barely formulate the words correctly. Before we knew it his wife stepped in the door. That's when we learned what he meant by _coming._

"She's going to give birth!" Ayumi was the one who screamed now. In the chaos the manager at the desk rushed them to his car, piling them in and dashing them off to the hospital.

"Stay here with Ayumi, Natsuki."

And there he was. Head just above my waist, glassesless, hair even longer and somehow more poofy than normal, Natsuki.

"Do you know this kid?" I asked Ayumi, curious as to why the boy had gotten stuck with us.

"Yeah. Our fathers are friends."

"He's a little young, don't you think?"

"He's nine."

"_Nine?" _I scoffed in disbelief. He was way too small to be nine. Too quiet, too calm and collected for a child whose mother had just run off. Too...everything.

"I can hear you, you know?" Natsuki finally spoke.

"I'd hope so." My eyes rolled at him, to this day I still hate children. What happened next I didn't expect. Natsuki stepped two paces forward, basically just close enough, so he could kick me in the shin. "Ow, you little punk-" But before I could get my hands on him, someone came between us.

"Cut it out," Ayumi defended him.

"_He kicked me." _

"Now whose acting like the child?"

Natsuki's eyes were glimmering. He knew. He'd just done it all on purpose. Out of every mission or every instance where I could have been wrong, I've always come out on top. And this child..

had just beaten me at my own game. My whole being was infuriated just looking down on this little kid. The way his shoes were too big, and the annoyingly unfashionable sense he had. You could tell his mother dressed him. But even for a child it was too tacky. And that hair, that small child hair that just needed to be sawed off.

"One day." I said.

"One day what?"

"I'm going to beat you at your own game."

"Nuh-uhh!" That fucking child whine. A tone to0 unruly for reason.

"You really did beat me." Natsuki said, head now resting lazily on the head of the seat.

"And I finally got to chop off all of that childish hair." Akira reached out his fingers to graze the top of Natsuki's hair.

"How childish that you would hold a grudge for eight years. Did I really kick you that hard? Was it worth it, really?" Natsuki's giggle was infectious, and Akira joined in.

"I guess it is a little... silly."

"You met my mother."

"Yes, I did."

"Was that the only time you saw me?"

"Of course not, this is such a small island. I saw you many times after that. Wasn't too fond of you, though."

"Are you now?"

Akira answered without thinking. "Well of course, you're not some child brat anymore, you're Natsuki... you're... you...are..." _What... what was I planning to say? _Akira's words drifted away from him, and the hand that had been in Natsuki's hair fell, realizing it had probably been lingering for too long.

"Sounds like there's a lot more to tell." Natsuki ignored Akira's hand detaching from his hair as if it had never been there in the first place.

"Too much to tell in one sitting. I'm _ollld... after all." _

"But you're going to leave. When will you have time to tell me?"

"I promise to come back and visit, Natsuki."

"Tell me about your family?... About my mother back then."

"Anything you want, I promise it."

"Okay..." Natsuki awkwardly began to move, each inch made them realize more that this was it. They really weren't going to see each other for some time. When he finally got the door open, Natsuki look back for a moment. "Don't change too much, okay?"

"I should be the one asking that of you. Be safe when you leave for America."

"You'll have to come visit me there, you realize that?"

"Goodbye, Natsuki." _Don't make this harder for me than it already is. _Akira watched as Natsuki safely got into his house. He turned back once more to wave, and Akira lifted his hand as well.

"QUACK!" Tapioca yelled from the backseat.

"_What do you mean, pathetic? Have you been awake this entire time?_"

"Quack.. Quack..." She began to change the subject.

"You're right..." Akira began to switch gears, but before he could the door opened again. Natsuki was running back to the car with something in his hand.

"This, here." Natsuki breathed heavily, arms slipping into the van.

"What is it?"

"My dad just made it really quickly, I'm sure it's the most awful thing. It's whitebait bubble tea with tapioca beads. He started making them about three months ago. I told him that they were going to be terrible but-"

"No, Thank you..." Akira took the tapioca tea from Natsuki and sat it in the cup holder.

"You're going to be okay." Natsuki was just dragging it out now, Tapioca was in the backseat urging Akira to move the van before he wouldn't be able to shift gears without crying.

"I need to go now, Natsuki.."

Natsuki never said a word, but only backed up enough so that the van could freely move. The entire time Akira was pulling out of the driveway his eyes were fixed elsewhere. Anywhere but where he could see Natsuki.

"Quack..! Qu_aack.!" _

"No one asked you, Tapioca." She slowly made her way into the front seat, buckling herself in.

"Quack."

"He does... remind me of him, okay? Drop it."

"Quack quaqua Quacka..."

"Oh no. Don't you dare start singing that." Akira's right hand grabbed for Tapioca but she shifted until Akira's van started to steer off the road. He returned his hand.

"Q-U-A-A-U-C-K." She sung to the beat.

"You're a child. We would never. Do you know how much younge-"

"Quack quaqua _Quacka?_"

"NO, NOT HIM EITHER, NOW DROP IT."

But she never did stop. Tapioca sung the entire way to the airport until she was forcibly silenced in the airplane. Even then she began to hum it in her sleep. He usually wouldn't have minded it so much. But they were something that Akira couldn't admit to yet.

Admitting that you lost someone precious to you such a long time ago and you've still not gotten over them.

Or a new friend seems like a hazy image of that person. More terrifyingly is that he could change for the worse too...

How did he feel about it, or for them?

The only thing Akira would freely admit is that they both care.

They'd both cared enough.

Knowing that both George and Natsuki cared was more than enough to live until tomorrow.

And the next day

and the next

Until they meet again.


End file.
